The state government’s annual regional road maintenance blitz has gone over and above its original target, delivering more than 1500km of rebuilding and repair works across Victoria.
Some 330km of that is in north-east Victoria.
Roads and Road Safety Minister Ben Carroll said more than 1100 maintenance and renewal projects had been delivered on the state’s regional roads since September last year, with an investment of more than $464 million supporting this work to maintain regional Victoria’s road assets.
“Our regional roads are vitally important, whether you are dropping the kids off at school, spending a long weekend in country Victoria, or transporting locally grown produce to market, ” Mr Carroll said.
“That’s why our annual road maintenance blitz is providing better journeys for all Victorians.
“This year our hard-working crews have also worked tirelessly replacing signs, inspecting bridges and mowing thousands of kilometres of grass to ensure smoother, more reliable connections.”
Across the state, crews have worked to rehabilitate, repair, and resurface some of the state’s busiest and more important transport and travel routes, including the Hume Hwy.
On top of these works, crews have also replaced more than 30,000 signs, inspected thousands of bridges and culverts, mowed more than 30,000km of roadside grass and responded to hundreds of out-of-hours calls from the public.
These vital works are ensuring that Victorians stay connected to education, employment, family and friends, as well as connecting manufacturers and producers with domestic and international trade markets.
The blitz has also helped to support the Victorian economy, backing more than 1800 jobs on the ground and throughout the supply chain across the state.
There is more work to come on Victoria’s roads later this year, with $780 million invested in the 2022-23 state budget for maintaining road assets.
These works will harness the latest technology and methods to ensure that road maintenance programs deliver better results than ever before for Victorian road users.